Appalachian Mountain Club Boston Chapter Local Walks/Hikes Committee
Local Walks/Hikes Authors
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Appalachian Mountain Club Boston Chapter Local Walks/Hikes Committee Local Walks/Hikes Authors |
Books by Active AMC Local Walks/Hikes Leaders
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Never Say It's Just a Dandelion: 125 Wonderful Common Plants for Walkers and Walk Leaders By Hilary Hopkins Paperback, 272 pp. ISBN: 0-9711048-0-8 Publisher: Jewelweed Books Pub. Date: November, 2001 Price: $10.00 Available from the author (send email to Hilary at hopkinsjh@aol.com), and at Amazon.com, Wordsworth and The Harvard Coop in Cambridge, and the Mass. Audubon Drumlin Farm book shop, 208 S. Great Rd. (Rte. 117) in Lincoln, and on walks led by Hilary. A take-along book about the plants a person will almost surely see in walking or hiking in the Northeast. For each of 125 wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and ferns, there is a page of succinct information including reasons for name, memory aids, growth habits, blooming time, uses, warnings, stories and activities. Opposite each page of text there is a blank page for notes, sketches and observations. |
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Walks on Weston Conservation Land: A Guide By Elmer E. Jones Paperback, 258 pp. ISBN: 0-9672295-0-2 Publisher: Weston Forest & Trail Press Pub. Date: 1999 Price: $15.00 Available at Dragon Books in Weston center, 391 Boston Post Rd., 781-647-0049; at the Mass. Audubon Drumlin Farm book shop, 208 S. Great Rd. (Rte. 117), Lincoln; at the AMC bookstore, 5 Joy St., Boston; at www.weston-forest-trail.org/membership.html; and at AMC local walks led by Elmer. An educational collection of 18 nature walks on Weston Massachusetts conservation lands with property descriptions, history, parking information, natural history and features of each. There are also lists of wildlife, wildflowers, blooming times, and 37 pen-and-ink drawings by Carol Govan. |
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From the Author |
From the Publisher
Filling a previously-vacant niche between a field guide and a text-heavy narrative, this inviting small book is a perfect companion on casual walks or hikes, or just for fun browsing on a rainy day. Plant rarities are exciting, but most people will never see them. Instead, walkers see grass, dandelions, clover, smartweed, oaks, maples, sumac and bracken fern. These are the kinds of "ordinary" plants affectionately explored in this lively book. Two unusual features are the simple activities suggested for close-up engagement with each plant, and the blank pages opposite each text entry--with an invitation to draw your own sketches, make notes, record observations.
From the Author
The title for my book came from my birder friends, the best of whom, I noticed, never said, "Oh, it's just a robin," but rather, "Look, a robin!" I love to find the wonders in the commonplace, the marvels that are hidden in plain view. If we can't see what's amazing about dandelions and grass that are right under our noses, how can we hope to cherish and care for the rest of it?
When I lead natural history walks, people often ask me, "Will we see any wildlife?" by which they nearly always mean animals. Well, the plants are wildlife too, and even more important than the animals. Furthermore, plants don't run or fly away when you try to study them, so you can explore them quite intimately, peering with your magnifier at their tiny mysteries and beauties.
Before I had written a word of the book, I had planned on including the "blank" pages for people to draw and write on. I like the idea that even people who "can't draw" (like me) can make perfectly good little sketches of what they see, the better to make friends with the plant.
I had a lot of fun writing this book, and I love every one of its 125 plants! I hope you will come to love them, too, and have as much fun as I did.
About the Author
Hilary Hopkins spent twenty-one years as a teacher of children and adults. Then she worked as a tour director and discovered how interested her passengers were in the plants they saw by the roadside. This led to her own studies of common plants and her present work as a teacher-naturalist for the Audubon Society. Hilary likes to find the wonderful things hidden in plain view, and helping others to see them, too.
| Walk 1 - Cat Rock and 80 Acres Walk 2 - Coburn Meadow Walk 3 - The Sears Land Walk 4 - Forbes Conservation Land Walk 5 - Case Municipal Purposes Land Walk 6 - Doublet Hill, Hemlock Pond, and Elliston Woods Walk 7 - Hubbard Trail and Vicinity Walk 8 - Cold Stream Brook Walk 9 - The Blaney Aquifer Walk 10 - Ash Street Conservation Lands Walk 11 - Pine Street Town Forest Walk 12 - Highland Street Forest Walk 13 - Nolte Town Forest and Vicinity Walk 14 - Chestnut Street and Woodland School Area Walk 15 - Fiske Town Forest Walk 16 - Jericho Town Forest Walk 17 - College Conservation Area Walk 18 - Ogilvie Town Forest Appendix A: Woodland flowers Appendix B: Calendar of Bloom Appendix C: Weston Wildlife Appendix D: Historical Note Appendix E: Trail User Guide |
Sample walk: Cat Rock and 80 Acres
Weston has more than 65 miles of trails, open to hikers, skiers, and horses, but not to motorized vehicles. The Weston Trail Map can be purchased for $10.00 at the Conservation Commission office next to the Town Hall and at Weston Forest and Trail Association walks on the first Sunday of every month (see http://www.weston-forest-trail.org for a schedule).